Aiman's Long Overdue Commentary On Bangsawan.

Hmmm.

Bangsawan. Bangsawan. What’s that in English, eh? *searches in vain for Malay-English dictionary*

Hmmm. *contemplates*

Well.

Since Bangsa = Nation, and Wan = ‘ist’

Bangsawan = Nationalist? Wait, that doesn’t sound right.

... And I don’t think Wan = ‘ist’ either. Damnit, man.

Whatever. The point is it was pretty cool, if a tad overblown. Just a tiny, itty, bitty tad. Insane respect to Aainaa, Luttphi, Nonnel, Bandung, Luqman, Aidid, hell, the entire Bangsawan committee, though. It's not easy to pull off something that big.

But there seems to be a significant number of people in KYUEM, juniors mostly, who believe that Bangsawan should be at least controlled, if not outright abolished. Bangsawan takes too much time, they complain. Bangsawan is too expensive, they say. Even the faculty don't seem very keen on Bangsawan, which I'm not surprised to hear after a quick personal estimation of the Maths Pre-Entry Test average grade (which I'm guilty of bringing down by at least 2 million points. Ha. Ha.).

All the above are valid points.

But so are the arguments for Bangsawan.

Which I'm sure my dear reader(s) is/are familiar with, judging by the amount of lecturing we've all received from the Directors. Cooperation, Brotherhood, Sisterhood, Woodwrking Skills, Painting Skills, yaddayaddayadda.

So the question remains. To Bangsawan or not to Bangsawan?

I am ostensibly neutral on this. I wouldn't mind if Bangsawan were scrapped, and I wouldn't celebrate should it be continued. What I know is that either way, I'm gonna do my best to win it for Sapphire, whatever the definition of 'win' may be.

…

Although I must admit, I do have some warm, fuzzy feelings for Bangsawan.

I mean, i suppose i’m biased towards it cause Sapphire won Best Technical, Supporting Actor, Actress and Choreography (which, I would just like to point out, is equal to the number of awards won by Topaz, although purists would argue the only award that counts is the Best Drama award, but to them i deliver a realy big, wet 'Pffft'.).

But still. Democracy. The fate of a College institution should not rest on the gut feeling of a single awkward, unsure, hormonally-charged college student. It should instead rest on a really big group of awkward, unsure, hormonally-charged college students.

The jury's out. All we can do now is wait.